Aerin Lauder for EJ Victor, Lee Jofa and Visual Comfort

Since leaving her job in 2011 as senior vice-president and creative director of Estée Lauder, the cosmetics company founded by her grandmother in 1946, Aerin Lauder has been busy. In August of 2012 Ms. Lauder debuted her first solo effort, the launch of her own luxury lifestyle brand, AERIN LLC, a mix of glamorous beauty products and home accessories.

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The homepage of AERIN.com, the online home of the lifestyle brand Aerin Lauder debuted in August 2012.

Aerin Lauder announcing the expansion of her lifestyle brand into lighting, fabrics, furniture, and rugs at High Point Market in April 2013.

Now, as announced at High Point Market in April (see the pic I took of her at the press breakfast, above), Ms. Lauder has partnered with EJ Victor for her eponymous furniture collection, Visual Comfort & Co. for her lighting collection, and Lee Jofa for her fabric and rug collection. Lauder credits her love for gold finishes, the outdoors, and her grandmother Estee Lauder’s signature style, as inspiration for her new licensed collections.

While I would love to able to share all of the beautiful AERIN lighting, fabrics, furniture, and rugs I saw in High Point and during BlogFest 2013 with you, due to a publishing exclusive I will instead give you a sneak peek of what’s to come later this summer via these beautiful watercolor vignettes, photos I took at BlogFest in May, Dining by Design in March, and High Point in April, and quotations from Ms. Lauder’s presentation in North Carolina in April.

Fabulous Furnishings: Ms. Lauder has partnered with EJ Victor for her eponymous furniture collection, Visual Comfort & Co. for her lighting collection, and Lee Jofa for her fabric and rug collection.

For EJ Victor. While Lauder says it’s essential that the line be beautiful, she noted the importance of having a product that will be used.“All of our pieces are very beautiful but functional,” she said. “I think there’s nothing worse than having something beautiful but you sit in it and it’s not comfortable.” I had the pleasure of sitting in many of her pieces in the High Point showroom, and they are indeed comfortable.

View of the Aerin Study in the EJ Victor High Point showroom.

For Lee Jofa. Lauder noted some of her favorite outdoor elements, including fresh air, sunshine and beaches. She says blue, gold and green are mainstays in her collections due to her love for what she feels they represent.

“My style is very much about edit and effortless style. I’ve been known to wear simple fashion with one great accessory,” Lauder says. “The same applies to the way I live; wonderful, classic rooms with an element of a twist. You’ll see that in the lighting and the fabric and the furniture; wonderful, quality pieces with an accent.”

With Aerin on a private tour of her fabric collection at Lee Jofa headquarters during BlogFest in May. Here she is pictured in a simple black and white outfit with chunky gold bracelets as her great accessory.

Aerin’s bird print fabric for Lee Jofa.

Aerin presenting her fabrics and rugs at BlogFest in New York.

Aerin Lauder’s table for Lee Jofa at DIFFA Dining by Design, March 2013.

While Ms. Lauder is best known for beauty products, she says she always wanted to branch out into other interests. “Home and accessories are very much my passion. My dollhouse was my favorite toy as a little girl and I always remember rearranging every room in the house,” she said. “Home has always been an important part of my life.”

Aerin Lauder’s dining table design with her fabric for Lee Jofa at DIFFA Dining by Design, March 2013.

For Visual Comfort. Lauder says she drew from lessons taught by her grandmother in putting together her home products. “She did teach me so many things. One is every woman can be beautiful and take the time to be beautiful. Not only did she love beauty but she loved home and accessories,” Lauder says. “She really taught me to love pattern and to love gold. She taught me gold is a neutral.”

Gold as a neutral in Lauder’s globe lighting design for Visual Comfort.

With Aerin in the Visual Comfort showroom in High Point for the press preview of her lighting collection.